Angels Watching Over Us

Alternately titled:
Take it to the Limit
Running on Empty, or
Thank You, Lord!

This is the valley in which I live. It's beautiful, somewhat remote, and peaceful. How Green Was My Valley (good movie, BTW).


I drive 8 miles of this to get to my valley...


And another 2 miles of this...


Along that 10 mile stretch there are exactly 4 possible side road exits and 2 driveways. Due to the mountaineous terrain, there is no cell phone reception. For essentially the full 10 miles.

Now picture, if you will, that it is nighttime and you are really ready to get home. Except, halfway there, your engine begins cutting out and your car jerks around the bend in the road. My wonderful husband made the split-second decision to take one of the few wide spots on the road, where we presently found ourselves, and turn the car around. And we began to pray. He put the car in neutral and we began coasting. At least two times the lay of the road required putting the car in gear and accelerating. Then the engine cut out and we were dependent on gravity and God. For over two miles. The bottom of this road intersects with a four-lane highway. God turned the light green ahead of us (Have I mentioned that our traffic lights are triggered by a car pulling up at them and waiting - and that this light has an unusually long wait time?). Kent coasted through the intersection and we drifted until the uphill slope stopped our progress. He attempts to start the car. Nothing. Again, nothing. More prayer, another attempt, it miraculously starts. We drive to the next intersection and head into Bergen Village. We come within sight of the gas station, the car begins jerking and attempting to stall again. More prayer, getting closer, angels pushing us along, and we coast, uphill!, to the pump - with a dead engine. Thank you, God!

Being a frugal, budgeting sort of girl, I keep track of every fill up and my mileage. I just did the math and my average fill up (that point at which the needle indicates we are nearly on empty) is at 249 miles, requiring 10.85 gallons of gas. Last night the car took 15.2 gallons and the trip odometer read 395. Wow! (BTW, the book says my tank holds 15 gallons of gas.)

I guess this is testament to what a nice visit we had with Kent's daughter, Esther - that Kent didn't even think about the gas gauge as we drove to and from the airport and did some sightseeing. But more on that later, I've invited Kent to do a guest post on his next day off.